Daily news blog for Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood

Sustainable Wallingford to promote solar installations

Posted by Kate Bergman on January 29th, 2013

Sustainable Wallingford is helping sponsor a citywide solar campaign and will be helping host workshops to help residents learn how to solarize their homes. It’s called the “Solarize Seattle: Northwest Project” and is organized by the non-profit NW SEED, who is working with Seattle City Light to organize volunteer groups who advocate for residential solar installations.

The campaign is an effort to make solar PV (photo-voltaic) systems more accessible through group-buying programs. They’re currently operating in several northwest Seattle zip codes, including north of the Ship Canal and west of I-5. There are also tax and production incentives to help lower the cost; a sales tax exemption allows for a 10 percent savings right off the bat, but that will expire June 30. However, a 30 percent federal tax credit will be available until 2016. The group-buying opportunity can save more money; click here for a rundown of how that works.

Save the date – the free Solarize workshop in Wallingford will be Saturday, April 6, 10-11:30 a.m. at Solid Ground.

shannon

Our family had solar installed on our house through the Solarize Seattle NE project this summer and we are super happy with the results. We've already received a state incentive payment and are looking forward to our federal tax credit this year – plus we don't have to pay an electric bill anymore. It's like our house is paying us for our electrical service. If you need funding, we found great terms through Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union.

Know This Subject

This is a gigantic waste of money. Solar panels in Seatte make absolutely no sense. Electricit costs about 8-9 cents a kilowatt hour here, but solar panels get a 65-cent per kilowatt hour subsidy, which goes into everyone else's electric bills. Even with that subsidy, the packback is 10 years.

There are much better ways to encourage renewable energy than to pay people EIGHT TIMES THE GOING RATE for electricity to install solar panels in a city that gets ONE FOURTH the solar radiation that the Southwest gets.

The solar panel salesmen love it, but if you are someone who looks at your electric bill and wonders what the hell is going on, well, one of the things that's going on is absolutely outrageous subsidies for solar panels in a city where they really make no sense.